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Saturday, April 1, 2017

Once Upon a Time, SPRING FREEBIES + Frog Street SPLASH!

Once upon a time, a seed was planted. It grew. It flourished. It bloomed!Welcome to April! Welcome to SPRING! Debbie Clement, editor-in-chief reporting.

Twenty-one years ago, I was an administrator at a private preschool for young children with special needs in Columbus, Ohio. I was in charge of designing a day of professional development for our staff. One of my peers suggested that I bring Jim Gill to inspire our team. I had never heard him speak. I called him. He came. He was amazing.

Jim had us singing and dancing. We laughed. We cried. I was indeed inspired. Jim changed my life. For!ev!er!

I wanted to be like Jim when I grew up. I wanted to sing and dance and inspire. So without a whole lot of consideration, very soon after his day with us, I wrote my letter of resignation. I finished out the last couple of months on my contract and I walked away from all that was familiar. I walked away from health insurance, snow days and a retirement account for the unknowns of contribution, adventure and creativity.

One day of professional development and my life changed forever. Twenty-one years ago. Fast forward a couple of decades.

One of the very first presenters to welcome me to the 'circuit' (after Jim) is a fellow Hoosier, Mary Jo Huff. Over the years we have become not just cheerleaders of one another's work but also of one another's family.

NOW! Take another look at the Frog Street list of presenters for the "Make-It, Take-It" portion of their upcoming pre-conference day! This is literally my professional dream team, a dream come true for me. Truly some of my very favorite people in the field.... gathered together in the same Super Hero galaxy.

Just imagine. How might your professional life be changed by attendance at an invigorating conference this summer? Where might YOU be in twenty years? I invite you to take a closer look at the conference playbook. Dream BIG. Plant some seeds. JOIN US!

Take a photo of each of your students. Plant some seeds!

As I make my author-illustrator school visits across the country, I get to see variations on the same concept. Here's a perfectly exciting spring science experiment.

See how much more FUN can be had watching the grass seeds sprout as 'hair.'

Here's another subtlety for this project, that allows the students to be able to see ALL of the roots as they grow and fill the plastic cup..... yet have the fun photo faces!

Then there's always this classic chestnut. I remember my own Lima bean in paper towel experiment as a child. Some concepts never go out of style.

EARTH DAY! This earlier article may be my very best, favorite hands on Artist Residency day of fun in preschool that I have ever designed. One pool noodle. Lots of tissue paper. Many hands.

Some FREEBIES! Click the image + go download.Proper etiquette has you leave a sweet comment.

We have had a week filled with hugs and movement. My grand niece and nephew (and their parents) spent some quality time with us. This is what an 18 month old and a 29 month old look like on our Wobble Seats.

In answer to your question: "No. They never fell off."Not even the 18 month old, whose toes didn't actually reach the floor.We distribute the Wobble Seats at WobbleSeat.com and can accept your purchase orders and we also offer quantity discounts.

2 comments:

Very cool activities, may fav that I'd probably use is the Earth Day ones. Big into that and health. Actually found some health brainteasers for the kids if you want me to share a few of those: Health Riddles